Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fitting body for a sanitary fitting and a method for producing a fitting body for a sanitary fitting. The fitting body is in particular a part or a component of a sanitary fitting.
Description of the Background Art
Sanitary fittings can include thermostat valves and/or mixing valves, in particular thermostatic mixing valves for bathtubs, wall basins, handheld showerheads or the like. To this end, the sanitary fittings regularly have a hot water inlet for hot water and a cold water inlet for cold water. In addition, the sanitary fittings regularly have an outlet for mixed water. The hot water and the cold water can be mixed within the sanitary fitting by means of a thermostatic valve to reach a predetermined water temperature. In addition, the water flow or the amount of water can be adjusted by means of a flow control valve. The valves can be actuated by means of separate actuators, or by means of a common actuator.
Water valves are known in which the water channels or waterways are formed in a base body. Such a body is made, for example, of metal, plastic or the like. In such a body, the water channels are inserted into the base body during the manufacturing process, in particular during a casting process or an injection molding process, by means of suitable shaping tools.
If complex water channels are to be realized in a molded body, it can lead to problems during demolding of such a body. When casting such a body, the complex water channels are regularly realized within the body by slide valves in contact with one another. Such slides are required if a water channel represents an undercut in the demolding direction. In such a manufacturing process, sharp geometries regularly arise which have an unfavorable influence on the water flow and the noise generation within a sanitary fixture.
To improve the demolding properties, undercuts in the demolding direction of the respective water channels or waterways should be avoided. For this purpose, however, it is usually necessary to divide the base body into a plurality of assemblies. Disadvantages in this case are the additional sealing points and junctions that arise, and the associated requirement for increased space. In addition, manufacturing tolerances should be taken into account when assembling the individual modules.
Another way to avoid undercuts in demolding is to demold in parallel the water channels or waterways in the mold. This produces, relative to a separating surface of the base body, open water channels that are not undercut in the viewing direction to the separating surface. However, such production has the disadvantage that the open water channels must be closed after demolding. To this end, for example, an appropriate cover can be applied to the separating surface. The fixing of such a cover can be realized by gluing, screwing, friction welding, vibration welding or the like. This also depends on whether the base body is formed with plastic or metal. Such a manufacturing process is generally performed in several stages because the closure of the open channels is downstream of the production of the base body and the demolding of the base body. Such manufacturing processes are subject to fluctuations, so that in the context of mass production, the result can be guaranteed reliably and uniformly only with great effort.
In particular, the fixing of the cover poses some problems in series production. In general, a one-piece cover is used to close all the channels. The fixing of the cover is relatively time consuming with the known methods of gluing, screwing, friction welding and vibration welding. If several and in particular different covers are used, the time required increases accordingly. In addition, there is the problem that the orientation of the cover relative to the open water channels is usually not very accurate with the known methods. In particular, using a one-piece cover to close all the water channels of a base body results in cumulative inaccuracies in the alignment of the base body and the cover due to manufacturing tolerances.